During the first quarter of 2026, IPI鈥檚 monitoring programme recorded 103 press freedom violations in 26 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. These spanned legal threats, arrests, and physical attacks, including the killing of a journalist in Somalia by a police officer.
As in previous monitoring reports, state actors (86%) remain the primary source of these violations, especially police and state security actors. The violations affected 141 journalists, including 21 women journalists.
In Somalia, a police officer shot and killed Abshir Khalif Shidane, a cameraman for the privately owned media outlet Horn Connect based in Mogadishu. The incident while Shidane was returning home from a work assignment. It is unclear what led to the incident. The officer was arrested, and Somali authorities have launched an investigation. In a separate incident, on March 18, armed police officers two journalists, Amiro Ibrahim of Kaab TV and Iqro Abdirahman of Five Somali TV, while they were reporting on public protests against land grabbing and forced evictions in Mogadishu. Later that evening, police raided the home of Abdirahman and rearrested her. Police also confiscated the journalists鈥� work equipment.
In the DRC, on January 28, elements of the armed group AFC/M23听barred journalists听from reporting on a landslide in a coltan mining zone in Rubaya, in the DRC鈥檚 North Kivu province. On March 3, individuals believed to be officers of the DRC鈥檚 National Intelligence Agency (ANR) Serge Sindani, a journalist working for the online news website , in the city of Kisangani, in the northern Tshopo province. The officers accused Sindani of collaboration with the rebel groups M23/AFC, after he published rebel statements claiming responsibility for a drone attack on Kisangani鈥檚 Bangoka International Airport.听
In Zimbabwe, in February, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister听Zhemu Soda threatened听journalist Blessed Mhlanga of HSTV with criminal prosecution following Mhlanga鈥檚 . Separately, in March, several journalists reported on public hearings on a law that would extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa鈥檚 term until 2030 among other amendments, were and made to delete their footage.
Legislative developments affecting press freedom听
In Senegal and South Sudan, authorities adopted laws that media and civil society communities fear may be used to stifle reporting. On February 18, President Salva Kiir of South Sudan the Cybercrime and Computer Misuse Act 2026. Globally, governments have increasingly used cybercrime laws to silence independent journalism under the pretext of curbing 鈥渇alse information鈥� or other forms of harmful online content.听
In Senegal, on March 3, the authorities a new law establishing the National Media Regulatory Council (CNRM). While in theory the move seeks to address concerns arising from a rapidly evolving digital media landscape, press freedom groups have also warned that the new regulatory framework could negatively impact press freedom. The new law grants broad powers to the CNRM 鈥� including closing or suspending media outlets or blocking content, with decisions immediately enforceable without the possibility of appeal 鈥� that could be used to target reporting not to the liking of authorities. The law was passed without due consultation of key stakeholders of the country鈥檚 media industry.
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